ELINOR M. BARNARD
Works shown at
Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibitions

1901

Portrait
Study of a Lady

1903

My
Little Model

1904

The Blue
Earring; Autumn
Flower Child

1905

The
Unforgotten

1908

La Cigale

1910

The
Young American

1911

A
Doubtful Visitor

Elinor
M. Barnard (1872-1942)English
watercolorist

From: Joan
Powell JacksonJoan jackson
home@aol.com(email is all one word)

She was a
portraitist of children
with her medium being water color and would paint the children of some
of the leading figures of her time. Many of her friends and people she
painted for were people that John Singer Sargent knew and painted as
well
-- she was the niece and studied briefly under Sargent's friend Frederick
Barnard. Although born in England, she was cosmopolitan and had
been
in the United States since 1913. She married a well know writer (in
those
times) Manuel Komroff who was 20 years her junior, but the two were
divorced
by 1937. She made her home in New York, but apparently traveled across
the country seeking and accepting commissions.

Why am I interested
in her?

In 1939 Elinor
happened to be in
New Orleans, Louisiana staying at the DeSoto Hotel where my father was
the manager. It so happened that she asked to paint
my sister and me. We both sat for her and she inscribed it to Mr.
and
Mrs. Powell -- which was our maiden name. The painting has been with me
all these years and have only recently been attempting to put a history
behind her signature on my portrait. Up to now I have been fairly
successful
in doing a genealogy type search, but I seem to have reached a brick
wall
on her parents.

[New
York Times, Feb. 17, 1942. She died
on the 16th.]

ELINOR
M. BARNARD, A PAINTER, IS DEAD

Artist,
Who Was Specialist in Water-Color
Portraits of Children, Stricken HereASSISTED
MANY YOUTHSGrandchildren of
J.P. Morgan and Henry Ford Are Among Those Who Posed for Her

Mrs.
Elinor M. Barnard Komroff [3],
artist who specialized in water-color portraits of children, died
yesterday
of a heart ailment in the Hotel Barbizon-Plaza after a short illness.
Mrs.
Komroff, who lived there and at Poundrige, Westchester County, was the
divorced wife of Manuel Komroff, the author. Her age was 70.Born in
London, Mrs. Komroff studied
art with an aunt [Emily Cummins Barnard], an artist, and with an uncle,
John Barnard, [sic we believe it should be Frederick
Barnard[1]
who was an] illustrator of works of Charles Dickens, as well as in
Paris.
She was a cousin of the London dramatic critic and producer, William
Archer,
and for a time made her home with his family. When he produced Ibsen's
plays the house in which Mrs. Komroff lived was often largely denuded
of
furniture for the stage sets. Mrs. Komroff was a grand niece of Michael
Faraday, the famous scientist.

Mrs.
Komroff was a friend of the
late
Earl of Oxford and Asquith, who as Herbert H. Asquith was Prime
Minister
of Great Britain at the start of the first World War. She painted his
children and was frequently his family's weekend guest.

She
came to the United States in
1913 and since had lived in various parts of this country. Her work
included
portraits of the children of Lord and lady
Astor, Lord
Ribblesdale, Lord Forbes-Leith and Lord Lovat and of the
grandchildren
of J. P. Morgan and Henry Ford. Her work has been shown in the Toledo
Museum
and elsewhere and she has demonstrated her technique before art classes
in New York and in the West. She had frequently assisted young art
students.

She
leaves a sister, Mrs. Edward
Buchanan of London.

In Oct. of this
last year (2003)
I went out to Springville, Utah Art Museum to see their collection of
Elinor
M Barnard's work. These 30 some odd pieces were in her possession at
the
time of her death. The Museum is desessioning them. I was able to
purchase
3 portraits, 2 lithographs, 1 drawing and 2 sketches. Vern
Swanson,
the museum director, encouraged me to do a biography of Elinor and a
"raisonne."
(I cannot do an accent mark on my computer) in a pamphlet form. This in
order to get her name out there once again in the Art World

There is an lot on
the net regarding
her ex-husband, Manuel Komroff. The New York Times article on the
divorce
sheds some light as well:

[New
York Times 1937]

KOMROFF
GETS DIVORCE

Author
Gets a Decree in Reno on Grounds
of Separation

RENO,
Nev., Aug. 14 (AP) - District
Judge Thomas F. Moran granted a divorce today to Manuel Komroff, New
York
author and editor, from Mrs. Elinor M. Barnard Komroff, British artist.
They were married in New York Dec. 23, 1918. The decree was granted at
a private hearing on a five-year separation charge. Property rights
were
settled in a seal agreement. Mrs. Komroff now is in Buenos Aires.Manuel
Komroff wrote "The Two Thieves,
"A New York Tempest," "Coronet," "I, The Tiger," and "waterloo," and
edited
"Contemporaries of Marco Polo."

Some of
the books which he reviewed
were "Masterpieces of Chikamatsu," "Skeptical Essays," "Genghis Kahn"
and
"The Holly Cities of Arabia."

Mrs.
Komroff is a painter of children.
She has painted in water-color the children of some of the leading
families
on both sides of the Atlantic. Her works have been shown in New York
galleries.

Also, the story of
how those 30 pieces
got to Utah is interesting. I will save that for later if you are
interested.

By the way, most of
the Barnard's
were silversmiths-the company going back to 1790 and still in business
today in London. (From time to time their pieces show up on ebay,
Christi's and Sotheby's)

"I used
to work only on the Sargentesque
lines of strong, vigorous, representational colour, and I still use
that
method for many subjects. But this is a day of freedom and research in
water-colours as in all else, and I am coming more and more to prefer
doing
my portraits in outline, with only hints of colour, the outlines always
showing."

1)

Elinor was a cousin
of Frederick
Barnard (who was the famous Charles Dickens illustrator). Her
father, George Edward, and Frederick were first cousins. This I learned
from doing a genealogical search. There were a few John's and one was a
cousin to G.E. and Fred. Komroff was probably confused with all of
these
names.

2)

Elinor studied with
Emily Cummins
Barnard-widow of Elinor's uncle William. Emily made her living doing
miniatures
of the "significant people" in England. She was born in 1840, died in
1902.
Emily was living with Elinor in 1901 (found on the census of 1901 in
Kensington)
She did a miniature of the Duke of Clarence which resulted in visits to
Buckingham Palace to confer with Queen Alexandra.

3)

Elinor was born
August 9, 1871 (birth
certificate). Her given name on the certificate is Ellen Margaret. She
used Elinor as her professional name and on entry into the United
States
at Ellis Island. "Elinor-Ellen" is found on her marriage license.
Margaret
is for her maternal grandmother, Margaret Sandeman Morison.

<><>Frederick's
father was Edward-not
John. I have Frederick's birth certificate. He was born 26 May
1846-father
Edward and mother Mary Chater. Edward was a silversmith as was George
Edward's
father, who was William. The Barnard and Sons Silver Co. is still in
business in
London. Edward and William were first cousins. Alice
Faraday Barnard's girls and son (Geoffrey b. 1872) were second
cousins
to Elinor M. Barnard. Alice Faraday Barnard was the niece of Michael
Faraday-he
being married to her aunt, Sarah Barnard. Alice and Frederick were
married
on the Isle of Wight Aug. 11, 1870.